Review HP Pavilion dv6598eg Notebook

All-Rounder. Time and again various manufactures produce really interesting notebooks. The Pavilion dv6598eg by HP should be one of them. The smart design, which also won a design award, covers a Geforce 8400M GS video card, which is just fit for gaming, a T7300 CPU, 2 GB main memory, and a big 200GB hard disk. Is there anything more to be desired? Maybe watching TV? - No problem a DVB-T tuner is also provided.

Note: The HP Pavilion dv6500 series is configured for each retailer according to his demands. The notebooks differ from each other mostly by different CPUs, main memory, and accessories. Named dv6595eg, a version very similar to the reviewed notebook is offered by Mediamarkt and Saturn. The low price (999.- recommended subject price) is only possible because of a less powerful CPU and a smaller hard disk and because the DVB-T is missing.

Case

After opening the display cover, you'll see the label tagged to the left palm rest area at the first glance. It labels the Pavilion dv6598eg as "reddot design award" winner, and hints on the new HP "imprint finish". This is a novel finish of the display cover and the hand ball supports of the notebook.

These are circular ornaments which nearly look like flowers. Covered by a glossy lacquer they decorate the notebook. Indeed, this design really looks good. It's decent, but, still attracts attention.

Not only the look of its surface, the total workmanship of the case can convince. The Pavilion dv6598eg is designed in the HP way, with round forms and high gloss materials, still, it is elegant. Obviously, the engagement of serious and competent designers was worth it.

But now to the facts. The robustness of the case is as good as its look. It's well resistant against applied forces and flexural rigid. The same is also true for the display.

The hinges allow a slight see-saw after adapting the display's position. Otherwise they keep the display well in its position. However, the opening angle is limited to about 130°. This might limit the mobile use of the notebook.

Furthermore, a transport hook is missing. Alike many other up-to-date notebooks, also the dv6598eg misses, for the benefit of a nicer look, this safeguard out. Be this as it may, this notebook might look too beautiful for a mobile use anyway, because scratches would decrease the good look…

Mainly the provided ports are at the left side of the case: There are a Firewire, a total of 3 USB ports, a HDMI, and an Expansion port. Notebooks belonging this class do not usually provide these, so, they make the dv6598eg a wonder of multimedia.

Input Devices

The keyboard is located in a separated region, which fits well to the design of rest of the case by rounded edges. So, the keys in the corners had to be rounded too. This looks good, and did not have any impact on user-friendliness.

The layout is rather dense, still all the keys have a sufficient size. Typing is alright too. The travel of the keys is adequate, the point of pressure clear, and the pressure resistance not too high. Overall, typing is user-friendly, but maybe a little rough and somewhat loud when typing forcefully.

HP also had a special idea regarding hot keys. Under a small black molding above the keyboard, blue lighted icons gleam. They react very sensible even to the lightest touch. They can be used for controlling the Mediaplayer and for volume control.

The touch pad is similarly designed in order to fit to the Pavilion's total appearance. Its buttons are user-friendly, and the touch pad can easily be deactivated by a button located above it. However, the pad's surface is very sticky and slows the navigating finger down too much.

Touch pad

Keyboard

Display

The HP Pavilion dv6598eg is equipped with a 1280x800 WXGA display, the most frequently used laptop display nowadays. Depending on the users taste and work habits, the overview provided by this resolution might be too low.

The display is sufficiently bright, subjectively the colors are somewhat dull, although the display has a glossy surface.

Because we were provided with the reviewed notebook only for a short time, we could not actually measure brightness and contrast.

Outdoor Operation

Outdoors the display reflect heavily. Also the brightness could be better. So, the maximum brightness can be estimated to about 150 cd/m² or slightly above.

Regarding stability to the vantage point the areas of operation are sufficiently big. However, at acuter angles you'll soon observe changes. Horizontally, you'll face a loss of contrast and heavy reflexions, vertically, the usual darkening or whitening.

Video Display's stability to the Vantage Point

Performance

The HP Pavilion dv6598eg is equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7300 with 2.0 GHz and a Geforce 8400M GS video card and is a beginner's multimedia notebook. Depending on the planned usage, the performance of the notebook ranges from "well equipped" to "a little bit limited".

The former is true for ordinary office, internet and mail applications, but also for DVD playback and music. This is ensured by the provided DVB-T tuner including remote control, aerial, and various accessories. Additionally these applications are supported by a big 200GB hard disk (5400 U/min) with slightly above average access times, and a total of 2GB main memory which also contributes to a quickly responding Windows desktop.

Another field of operation is of course computer games. Here the video card is most important. The Geforce 8400M GS by NVIDIA is on the one hand just playable, which is also proved by the benchmark tests, but the resolution and the number of details sometimes have to be clearly reduced in order to ensure acceptable display refresh rates.

Overall, the dv6598eg' s performance is good and user-friendly. However, gamer should rather attune to a Geforce 8600M GS as minimum equipment in order to ensure real gaming fun. For those who only occasionally play games, the Geforce 8400M GS, as provided in this notebook, should be sufficient.

Emissions

Loudness

Short after turning the computer on, we were surprised, because the fan started to run immediately. So, we looked into the Windows settings and noticed that the performance profile "balanced" was selected.

So, we changed the performance setting to "energy saving" and the fan stopped running at once. With this setting, you can nearly noiselessly type and browse the Internet. Only sometimes, the fan interrupts the silence for some seconds.

If you concentrate on the fan's noise, you'll notice a hardly audible sough, which annoys…

Under load the fan runs at full speed. In our test with big load, i.e. computationally and graphically demanding applications, the noise level increased to up to 49.1dB.

No Loudness Data found for specs ID 2099

Temperature

Also regarding this aspect the dv6598eg is passable. Neither at the bottom side nor at the top sidestriking or even disturbing temperatures were measured. The maximum temperature of about 39°C is alright.

Upper side

palmwrist: 33.3°C max: 35.6°C avg: 33.7°C

Bottom side

max: 39.2°C avg: 35.8°C

Speakers

The speaker slightly blasts at maximum volume. Otherwise, its sound is good and clear. The basses could be better, but, this is not surprising, because the dv6598eg lacks a subwoofer.

Battery Runtime

The measured battery runtime ranges from a little above one hour under load to a maximum of about 4 hours with optimized energy settings. Depending on your demands, a battery runtime of up to 3 hours should be possible in practice.

Battery Runtime

Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)

4h 15min

Load (maximum brightness)

1h 15min

Verdict

The HP Pavilion dv6598eg is a classical consumer notebook with generous equipment and accessories. Covered by an attractive case, it could mostly convince in our tests.

The dv6598eg's case does not only look elegant, it is also stable and robust. Furthermore, the ornaments are really beautiful.

The input devices, especially the keyboard, are in general alright. Maybe typing might be a little too loud. Also the touch pad could not totally convince, because its sticky surface makes navigating difficult.

Subjectively, the display is rather average. Unfortunately there was no time left for exact measurements. There are small weaknesses, regarding stability to the vantage point.

The performance is passable, however, the Geforce 8400M GS is slightly too weak for demanding 3D applications or gaming. Still, up-to-date games are possible, but, with reduced details and resolution.

Depending on the chosen performance settings, the emissions range from comfortable silent to really loud. Overall, they are alright, because the dv6598eg stays comfortable quiet in idle mode.

The Pavilion dv6598eg's battery runtime ranges from 1 hour to about 4 hours. So, also a mobile use is possible.